Bangladesh

[Petronas]

Bangladesh (Country threat level - 4): A blast occurred in a shopping center located on New Elephant Road in central Dhaka at approximately 1630 local time (1030 UTC) on 9 April 2005. The blast sparked a fire, which destroyed approximately 15 shops and fast food restaurants in the area. Fire fighters were called to the scene to fight the blaze, and police officers blocked off the area and stopped traffic from entering. At least 35 people were injured in the explosion. Reports vary as to the cause of the blast. Some indicate that it may have been the result of a homemade bomb, while others say it may be an accident. There are no embassies in the vicinity of New Elephant Road, but the road is located near major hotels such as the Sheraton.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 4/11/2005

[Petronas]

Baptist leader beheaded in Bangladesh
Monday, May 23, 2005

JALALPUR, Bangladesh - A Baptist lay pastor has been beheaded in Bangladesh, the second Christian leader to lose his life in that country in a year, according to a Christian news organization. Dulal Sarkar, 35, was attacked as he returned home from discussing his faith with local villagers, reported Compass Direct, which tracks incidents of Christian persecution. One source later identified the assailants as a group of 10 local Muslim extremists. After reporting the incident, Sarkur's wife, mother and five children have been forced to move from place to place in fear for their lives.

According to local Christians, three arrests have been made, but the remaining seven alleged attackers, who reportedly have ties to the Jamaat-e-Islami political party, are still at large. They fear the political influence of Jamaat-e-Islami may prevent the case from going to court, Compass Direct reported. Meanwhile, Sarkur's widow has asked a Christian orphanage to take three of their five children because she cannot afford to support them.

The incident is the second beheading in a year, the news service said. Abdul Gani, a prominent Christian and physician, reportedly was decapitated by a gang in the district of Jamalpur as he returned home from work in September 2004. Gani was a counsel member of the Bangladesh Baptist Fellowship.

In 2003 another Christian leader was murdered by a group of eight men who attacked him in his home. Christian evangelist Hridoy Roy was stabbed repeatedly after being tied "crucifixion style" to his bed. Roy was known for showing the Jesus film and others about the life of Christ. Muslim neighbors reportedly had warned him to stop.

Bangladesh has suffered from religious disharmony since 1971, when the nation was split from Pakistan. The country is approximately 83 percent Muslim and 16 percent Hindu. Buddhists and Christians make up the remaining 1 percent. Islam was declared the official state religion in 1998. The current government is a coalition of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and three other Islamic parties. The third largest party, Jamaat-e-Islami, reportedly wants to make Bangladesh an entirely Islamic nation.

http://www.biblicalrecorder.org/content/news/2005/5_23_2005/ne230505baptist.shtml

[Petronas]

Ahmadiya mosque set ablaze in Bangladesh, two others attacked
Jun 24, 2005, 17:25 GMT

Dhaka - Suspected Islamic militants on Friday burned down a mosque and carried out bomb attacks on two other places of worship of the minority Ahmadiya sect in eastern Bangladesh, officials said. Witnesses said the Ahmadiya mosque was razed to the ground after it was set ablaze by activists of a local anti-Ahmadiya group which wants the sect to be officially declared non-Moslem. At least three people were injured in the fire which had quickly engulfed the mosque in the bordering town of Brahmanbaria, about 110 kilometres east of the capital Dhaka. Heavily armed policemen cordoned off the charred mosque. A rescue worker said there were a few people inside the mosque when the arson attack took place. Residents said fire-bomb attacks were carried out on two other Ahmadiya mosques in the town but no casualties from these incidents were reported.

Nearly a quarter of a million Ahmadiyas live in Bangladesh whose majority Moslem population is dominated by the Sunnis. Extremist Sunni groups want the government to declare the Ahmadiyas non-Moslems because of religious differences on the status of Islam's prophet Mohammed. Most Ahmadiya religious publications are banned in Bangladesh, an Ahmadiya leader said.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southasia/article_1021453.php/Ahmadiya_mosque_set_ablaze_in_Bangladesh_two_other s_attacked_

[NYer]

Jihadists Murder Muslims


This time it’s Bangladesh.

India’s Business Standard reports:

About 400 small bombs, suspected to have been planted by an Islamic militant outfit, exploded almost simultaneously in cities and towns across Bangladesh today killing at least two persons, including a child, and injuring 138.

A security alert was sounded all over the country immediately after the explosions which occured between 11.00 am and 11.30 am (local time), targeting government offices, courts and press clubs in all but one of the 64 districts in the first such attack in volatile Bangladesh.

No organisation has claimed the responsibility for the blasts but police suspected involvement of the outlawed militant outfit Jamiat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh after recovering leaflets under its name from the blast sites which demanded implementation of Islamic law in the country. At least 46 suspects have been arrested from different parts of the country, sources said.

The private NTV television channel said at least 138 people were injured in nearly 400 explosions of crude bombs. A rickshaw puller and a child died in the blasts.

A child and a rickshaw puller murdered. These are very “soft targets” — and who has Bangladesh offended?

According to the leaflets, Bangladesh has offended God:

The leaflets found at the sites of the blasts said “It is time to implement Islamic law in Bangladesh. There is no future with man-made law,” and “(US President George W Bush) and (British Prime Minister Tony Blair) be warned and get out of Muslim countries.”

Here’s some more information on the jihadist killers and their techniques:

Jamiat-ul Mujahideen, led by the so-called “Bangla Bhai” who is on the run, was banned early this year along with another group Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh. The two groups were accused of being behind a series of bomb blasts, including those at two local aid agencies — Grameen and Brac.

Although officials did not say what kind of bombs exploded today, TV footages showed batteries strapped together in plastic bags.

Some of the blasts rocked the High Court and Judge Court premises in Dhaka, DC offices and Judge’s courts in Narayanganj, Sylhet, Habiganj, Sirajganj, Sherpur, Mymensi ngh, Kishoreganj, Gazipur, Rajshahi, Lalmonirhat, Naogaon, Khulna, Chittagong, Bandarban, Patuakhali and other places.

The Grameen Bank is a micro-development lender. The attacks on Bangladesh’s legal institutions are the “political message.”

http://austinbay.net/blog/?p=497

[Petronas]

Bangladesh (Country threat level - 4): Beginning at approximately 1200 local time on 3 October 2005, at least five bombs exploded within a span of 15 minutes at court complexes in Chittagong, Chandpur and Lakshmipur. At least two explosions occurred in Chittagong, resulting in two injuries; two occurred in Lashmipur, killing one person and injuring five others; and at least one bomb exploded in Chandpur, which also killed one person and injured five others. Police officers have arrested six people in connection with the bombings, all of whom are reportedly members of the Jammat-ul Mujahideen group, which is thought responsible for the 17 August coordinated bomb attacks. Leaflets calling for Islamic rule were found at the blast sites.

On 2 October, four bombs exploded at a fish market in Satkhira, located in southwestern Bangladesh, killing two people and injuring two others. In a similar attack on 2 October, at least one bomb exploded near a hospital in the eastern district of Brahmanbaria. Police officials reportedly discovered a leaflet at the blast site that warned of additional bomb attacks if hotels remain open during Ramadan. No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which come after police officers arrested Mufti Abdul Hannan -- the alleged mastermind of the 17 August bomb attacks -- on 2 October.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 10/3/2005

[Petronas]

Bangladesh (Country threat level - 4): According to a threatening letter that police officials received on 23 October 2005, members of Jamaat ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the group thought responsible for the 17 August and 3 October coordinated bomb attacks that affected multiple cities, are planning more simultaneous attacks against government installations in the next 15 days. In particular, the letter threatened to attack government facilities in Sylhet, Feni, Khulna and Jessore. JMB has previously threatened similar attacks in Tangail and Kushtia if police officials continue to harass the group's activists.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 10/24/2005

[Petronas]

Bangladesh (Country threat level - 4): On 14 November 2005, a man reportedly threw a bomb at a car carrying two judges of a Bangladesh lower court. The attack took place in Jhalakathi district, located approximately 155 mi/250 km south of Dhaka. Both of the judges were killed in the attack. No further details are available at this time.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 11/14/2005

[Petronas]

Bangladesh arrests 9 militants, on alert before rally
19 November 2005

DHAKA - Police in Bangladesh said they had raided a den of militants on Saturday in the country’s north, seized bomb-making material and arrested three suspects. “A hardcore militant was arrested from the den in northwestern Panchagarh, 500 km (300 miles) from Dhaka, while two others were picked up from other spots,” a senior police officer said.

Earlier police said they had arrested six suspected Islamist militants on Friday in the northwestern area of Thakurgaon. Police said one of those held there had identified himself as the son-in-law of Shayek Abdur Rahman, leader of the outlawed Islamist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which is blamed for a wave of bombings across the country on Aug. 17.

Authorities were on heightened alert for more violence and bombings ahead of a major opposition rally next Tuesday. The main opposition party, the Awami League, said police had detained nearly 100 young party leaders and activists over the past two days in attempts to foil the rally.

Police, meanwhile, stepped up a nationwide hunt for potential suicide bombers as Islamic militants threatened more attacks and lawyers boycotted courts over the killing of two judges. In the capital, Dhaka, on Saturday police searched pedestrians and vehicles, and raided hotels looking for militants, witnesses said.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2005/November/subcontinent_November680.xml&section=subcontinent

[Petronas]

India fences off Bangladesh to keep out Muslim terror
November 13, 2005

INDIA is accelerating the construction of a 2,500-mile fence to seal its border with Bangladesh amid growing fears that its Muslim neighbour could become “a new Afghanistan”. Indian officials and western diplomats have been alarmed by an increase in terrorist attacks by militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda and by the Dhaka government’s failure to crack down on them. One group said to have links with the government claimed responsibility for 500 synchronised explosions in 63 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts in August.

India’s cabinet has decided to speed up work on the 8ft security fence, which is intended to keep out terrorists and arms smugglers. The fence, which cuts a swathe through some of India’s densest rainforests, will be finished by the end of next year and patrolled by a border security force. Key stretches are being electrified.

The initiative follows attacks by two groups related to Al-Qaeda — Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh and Harakat-ul- Jihad-ul-Islami (Bangladesh), which was among 15 organisations that were banned in Britain last month. Grenade and bomb explosions across Bangladesh have killed 30 and injured hundreds in the past year. Two Awami League opposition leaders were among those killed and the British high commissioner was targeted in a grenade attack.

It was the August 17 blasts that caused the most alarm. Although only two people died, they showed a new level of sophistication. There were 28 bombs in Dhaka alone and the targets included the prime minister’s office, the police headquarters and the supreme court. Leaflets found at the bomb sites declared: “It is time to implement Islamic law in Bangladesh” and “Bush and Blair be warned and get out of Muslim countries”.

Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh is led by “Bangla Bhai”, a former vigilante who once fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. Opposition leaders and diplomats believe the government has failed to act against Bangla Bhai and other terrorists because they have connections with the governing coalition.

There are two Islamic fundamentalist parties in the coalition, which is led by Begum Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist party: the Jamaat Islami (JI), which has 10% of the vote, and the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ). The JI is increasingly respected by ordinary voters for its social welfare work, lack of corruption and the operations of its bank, the most profitable in Bangladesh. “You don’t have to pay a bribe to get a loan from them,” said a western observer.

Senior members of the IOJ have declared themselves to be “for the Taliban and for Osama (Bin Laden)”. “There’s a reluctance to acknowledge there’s a problem here,” said one diplomat, who described the IOJ as “real wackos”. He added: “These are the ones going after an anti-American armageddon. Some of the people charged with the bombings have had linkages with the main party.”

Sabir Hossain Chowdhury, an opposition leader who was detained for three months after complaining about Islamic militants linked to the government, said Bangladesh was being subjected to a campaign of intimidation and the government was guilty of complicity. “Bangladesh is probably the only government in the world that includes a group which is committed to jihad and sharia,” he said. The country was undergoing creeping “Islamicisation”, he added. “If you look at state TV, more presenters are wearing beards. On the radio they’re reciting more and more from the Koran. The most notable example is at Dhaka airport where signs are now in Arabic but no one speaks it.”

All the partners in the government coalition deny condoning political oppression or terrorism or failing to act. They point out that they have banned two of the main terrorist groups and made high-profile arrests. Western diplomats are caught between fear and denial. “Our impression is that the government here has the ability to crush these guys if they want to,” said one. “All the ingredients for trouble are here.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1869575,00.html

[Petronas]

One killed in Chuadanga bomb attack: Threat to blow up US, EU missions, kill SC judges
Sun, 27 Nov 2005, 11:09:00

Embassies of the USA and the European Union, including the UK in Dhaka received e-mail threat yesterday that members of the Al-Qaida would blow those up. An e-mail was sent by one Manik Hossain to the UK Embassy from Faridganj, in Chandpur. The sender identified himself as a member of the Asia Al- Qaida suicide squad. The First Secretary of the UK embassy W M Stevlanson filed a general diary with the Gulshan Police Station in this connection, it was learnt. When contacted Gulshan police confirmed the report.

Meanwhile, in the capital outlawed Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has threatened to kill Supreme Court judges and lawyers for what it said delivering judgement after taking bribes.

Meanwhile, one person was killed and five others were injured in a bomb attack at Alamdanga in Chuadanga district and three other journalists received death threats from JMB in Barisal yesterday.

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President advocate Mahbubey Alam received a letter, sent by one Maulana Ali Azam joint secretary of JMB, Dhaka, in which it was said that most of the judges of the Appellate Division and the High Court Division have no right to remain alive since they take bribe and uphold the lower courts’ judgments. ”At present only inexperienced and corrupt men are being appointed judges. Those who have no certificates are being made judges in exchange of bribes, and under political considerations. Do you think that they can be protected by gunmen?" the letter sent to the SCBA questioned. SCBA president told journalists that the fundamentalist terrorists were trying to destroy the judiciary of the country. ”They have been launching bomb attacks on the judges and courts to destroy the century-year-old institution of judiciary to establish their own judicial system. The letter will be submitted to the police, who will find out the sender of the letter is," SCBA president said.

The typewritten letter, which was sent by mail, bore the address of the sender as 19/3, Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka. The letter read, "You know, six judges of the Supreme Court and 75 per cent judges of the High Court take bribe. That is why such judges will have to be sent to the Jahannam (hell). You cannot protect them."

Our Alamdanga Correspondent adds: an activist of ruling party BNP was killed and five other people were injured in a bomb attack at Alamdanga upazila in Chuadanga yesterday. The deceased was identified as Raja Meer, 34, son of Bari Meer under village Hardi. Seriously injured Abdul Bari, a fertiliser trader, and Shamsul Alam, a van driver, were admitted to the Kushtia General Hospital with severe bomb injuries and the others were released after first aid.

Following the attack, the mob caught a bomber red-handed while fleeing. The angry people also beat him up and handed him over to the police in an unconscious state. The injured bomb thrower identified as Kuddus hails from village Bogadi in Alamdanga upazila claimed himself as a member of JMB.
Son of Mangal Dakat, Kuddus was recently freed from jail, police said.

JMB members in a letter threatened three local journalists of Banaripara upazila under Barisal district with death. The Daily Samakal Banaripara correspondent Al Mamun Laskar, special correspondent of local the Daily Ajker Barta Mizanul Islam and the Daily Ajker Paribartan correspondent SM Mainul Islam Sabuj received those death threats in separate letters. The three journalists filed general diary with the Banaripara Police Station in this connection.

http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_23457.shtml

[Petronas]

Nine die in Bangladesh bombings
Tuesday, 29 November 2005, 18:05 GMT

At least nine people have been killed and 40 wounded in two bomb attacks near court houses in Bangladesh, police say. Seven people, one a suspected suicide bomber, died in Gazipur. In Chittagong, two policemen were killed while the alleged bomber was seriously injured. No group has claimed the blasts. Police are blaming a banned Islamic group. The BBC's Roland Buerk says if the Gazipur blast is confirmed as a suicide attack it would mark a significant stepping up of a campaign by militants.

Bangladesh has been hit by a wave of recent bombings that have targeted judges, journalists and politicians. The authorities believe the courts and judges are targeted because they symbolise the secular laws in the country. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said the attackers were enemies of the country and democracy. "Allah will condemn such killers to hell."

Police say preliminary investigations suggest the Gazipur bomber had explosives strapped to his body. Bangladesh police chief Abdul Qaiyum told the BBC that, if confirmed, it would be the country's first suicide bombing. "The attackers seem to have changed their strategy," he said. Mr Qaiyum said the attacker had entered the bar library in Gazipur wearing a lawyer's black gown in a bid to evade police security.

Three people died on the spot and four others succumbed to their injuries later in hospital in the capital, Dhaka, about 30km (20 miles) away. Our correspondent, who visited the library, described a scene of carnage, with blood all over the floor and shoes, glasses and briefing papers scattered among wrecked furtniture. Lawyer Anwar Fakir suffered severe burns. "I suddenly heard a big bang, and seconds later I found myself on the floor with pool of blood and body parts around me," he told the Associated Press. The attack in the port city of Chittagong came about the same time, at around 0900 (0300 GMT).

At least 16 people, 13 of them policemen, were wounded in addition to those killed. "When police on suspicion wanted to check the bomber, he immediately threw a bomb at the police team and then exploded another bomb in his bid to escape," said police constable Kabir Hossain. Police say the bomber lost both legs in the second blast.

The group police suspect is Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which wants to establish Islamic law in Bangladesh. Most laws in Bangladesh are secular, based on British legal code. Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen is one of three Islamic groups outlawed after the authorities linked them to a series of blasts. Lawyers and judges have received threatening letters from the group in the past few weeks. Earlier this month, two judges were killed in a bomb attack as they travelled to court in southern Bangladesh.

In August more than 400 small devices went off across the country within the space of half an hour, killing two people and injuring more than 100. Leaflets purportedly left by the militant group at some blast sites have called for the establishment of Sharia law in Bangladesh.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4480408.stm

[Petronas]

BD police finds bombs, arrests 20 militants
Saturday, December 03, 2005

DHAKA: The police, hunting for suicide bombers in Bangladesh, said they had found five bombs and arrested 20 suspected militants on Friday following three bomb attacks this week that killed 13 people and wounded nearly 100. The bombs were found on a street corner in southwestern Khulna city, 350 kilometres from the capital Dhaka, they said. A total of 50 suspected militants, mostly students of religious schools across the country, have been detained over the past four days.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005\12\03\story_3-12-2005_pg7_9

[Petronas]

Bangladesh faces ‘national crisis’
Saturday, December 03, 2005

DHAKA: A government minister and Islamic party leader warned Friday that Bangladesh faced a national crisis after a series of deadly bomb blasts by religious extremists calling for the imposition of strict Muslim law. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid called on Bangladeshis to unit against those behind the attacks in the Muslim-majority country including the first suicide bombings that killed 11 people on Tuesday. “Terming the attacks a national crisis, Jamaat-e-Islami general secretary and social welfare minister Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid said using bombs to achieve political ends would not resolve the problem,” the official BSS news agency said Friday.

Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia has called for political unity to fight militants and sought to assure Bangladeshis, rattled by a wave of suicide bombings, that they will be safe. Khaleda, criticised by opposition politicians for failing to stop the attacks by Islamist bombers, told a rally in the western district of Kushtia that the militants behind the blasts would be “found, arrested and punished” at all costs. But she added a caveat. “This would not be possible unless all political parties cooperated with the government and law enforcing agencies,” she said late on Thursday.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005\12\03\story_3-12-2005_pg4_6

[Petronas]

Bomb attack in Bangladeshi town
Thursday, 8 December 2005, 16:26 GMT

At least six people have been killed and more than 50 hurt in a suicide bomb attack in Bangladesh, officials say. The blast took place in a busy street in the northern town of Netrakona, as police examined a suspicious package. The attack, apparently carried out by two men on a bicycle, occurred outside the office of a secular cultural group. Bangladesh has been hit by a series of bombs in recent months blamed on Islamic extremists. At least 12 people were killed last week.

Police at the scene of Thursday's attack say two men rode up on a bicycle and dropped a package on the street. One bomber died, the other was injured, police say. Eyewitnesses say a big crowd had collected to watch the police examine the package thought to contain a bomb, when the explosion took place. "It was a terrible sight. People were screaming in pain all around," the Associated Press quoted a local journalist, Shymolendu Pal, as saying. The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals where the condition of some was said to be serious.

Last month, a powerful bomb exploded inside a library near a courthouse in Gazipur, leaving seven people dead and about 50 others injured - police described it as the country's first ever suicide bombing. In a second attack on the same day, two policemen were killed in a bomb attack outside a courthouse in the port city of Chittagong. Two days later one person died in another bomb attack in Gazipur. The government blamed a banned militant group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, for the explosions and a series of earlier attacks.

More than 400 people have been arrested but the BBC's Roland Buerk in Dhaka says the masterminds remain at large. The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen wants to establish Islamic law in Bangladesh.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4509046.stm

[Petronas]

Islamists demand Bangladeshi women wear veil
Fri Dec 9, 2005 10:57 AM GMT

DHAKA (Reuters) - A banned Islamist militant group blamed for a series of bombings in Bangladesh has threatened to kill women, including non-Muslims, if they do not wear the veil, a statement said. The statement by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen came hours after Thursday's suicide bomb attack in a northern town that killed at least eight people, the latest of a series of blasts blamed on militant groups in their campaign for an Islamic state.

"Women will be killed if they are found to move around without wearing burqa (veil) from the first day of Jilhaj," the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen said in the statement sent to a Dhaka newspaper office. Jilhaj refers to the Arabic month beginning early January. "Women, including non-Muslims, are hereby advised not to go out of home without burqa. Seclusion has been made compulsory for you," said the statement in Bangla language, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Friday.

The group, which wants the introduction of sharia laws in mainly-Muslim Bangladesh, also ordered women students at Dhaka University not to step out after sunset, prompting police to increase security around the campus.

Earlier, a police officer said 30 suspected members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and another outlawed group, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, were arrested for involvement in a wave of bomb attacks that have rattled the impoverished nation this year. A dozen bombs were seized in raids across the country, the official said, as police hunted for the leaders of the two outlawed groups.

Two bombs exploded on a crowded street in the northern town of Netrokona on Thursday, killing eight people and wounding 50, many on their way to work. A suicide bomber was believed to be among the dead, while another was found wounded with an unexploded bomb strapped to his body.

"These bombers are enemies of Islam and must be stopped," said an official at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, adding the government had asked clerics to spread the message from the nation's 250,000 mosques. Thursday's deaths took the number of people killed by suspected suicide bombers to 28 in three weeks, including judges, lawyers and policemen. At least 150 people have been wounded.

Bangladesh is the world's third-most-populous Muslim country after Indonesia and Pakistan. State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar said last month that Islamists had formed a 2,000-strong suicide squad to press home their demands.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2005-12-09T105645Z_01_WRI919487_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SECURITY-BANGLADESH.xml

[NYer]

More bad news (http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2005/12/half-million-mosques-protest-terror-in.html) for Zawahiri.

[Petronas]

Bangladesh (Country threat level - 4): Reports indicate that security forces in Dhaka, the capital, went on high alert on 11 December 2005 after a bomb exploded near the city's diplomatic area on the night of 10 December, causing minor injuries to one person. A live bomb was also recovered from Narsingdi, an industrial town located approximately 50 mi/80 km east of the capital. Authorities stated that they are taking extra precautions as Bangladesh prepares to celebrate the 34th anniversary of its 1971 independence war victory against Pakistan on 16 December.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 12/12/2005

[Petronas]

Bangladesh arrests military head of banned Islamic militant group
Wed Dec 14, 8:19 AM ET

DHAKA (AFP) - Bangladesh's elite security force said it has arrested the military head of a militant group which is waging a deadly bombing campaign to impose Islamic law in the majority-Muslim country. "We have caught Ataur Rahman Sunny, the military head of Jamayetul Mujahideen, from a hideout in Dhaka today," Lieutenant Commander Mahbubul Haq Molla, a senior officer of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), told AFP on Wednesday. Sunny, whom police say led a series of bomb attacks on behalf of the banned group, would be paraded before the media later Wednesday, police said.

"RAB officers surrounded a dormitory of a technical institute in the city and nabbed Sunny from his hideout," Molla said. "We have information that he is the military and operation chief of Jamayetul Mujahideen." Sunny is also believed to be the brother of the main leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman, who remains a fugitive, police said.

Police have linked Jamayetul Mujahideen to a wave of nationwide bomb blasts in August and suicide bombings late last month. A total of 24 people as well as four suicide bombers have been killed since August. The group wants to impose strict Taliban-style Islamic law in the country and has made the judiciary its prime target, with two judges and four lawyers among those killed in the suicide attacks.

In a series of countrywide raids after the capture of Sunny, the RAB also arrested two regional chiefs of Jamayetul Mujahideen and seized explosives from their hideouts, RAB officers said. They include a leader of the militants in the port city of Chittagong and and another local leader from Cox's Bazar, RAB officer Mohammed Osman said. "Both are now under our custody. Their information also helped us seize huge cache of arms and explosives from the city (Chittagong). We are also making more raids in the city," he said.

The RAB, created early last year, said it also seized a major arms and explosives cache in Dhaka. "Our men have seized a warehouse full of arms and explosives ... early Wednesday morning," said Squadron Leader Fazal, a spokesman for the force of police and paramilitaries. "The Jamayetul Mujahideen men stockpiled the arms and explosives. These weapons could cause mayhem, killing thousands of people," said Fazal.

The haul included 24 live grenades, 20 pistols, nearly 90 kilograms (198 pounds) of explosives and bomb-making materials and 50 electric detonators among other weapons, Fazal said. "It's the biggest seizure of weapons by security forces. The explosives are enough to make more than 300 bombs," another senior officer, who declined to be named, told AFP from the scene. The officer added they also seized hundreds of pamphlets used to recruit people to join an Islamic holy war. Bangladesh has mobilised thousands of police, paramilitary troops and the RAB to hunt for members of the group.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051214/wl_sthasia_afp/bangladeshblast;_ylt=AiJHPuSOO1OZWxPY8mUaf5tvaA8F; _ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

[Petronas]

Bombs cache prompts red alert in Bangladesh
20 December 2005

DHAKA — Security forces in Bangladesh were on red alert after anti-terror police reported the discovery of a huge cache of explosives in Mymensingh, officials said yesterday. Sources said a group from the elite Rapid Action Battalion raided a hideout of suspected militants in the town and seized a dozen grenades, two remote controlled devices, 25kg of chemical explosives and a large number of bomb detonators. “Militants belonging to the Jamiatul Mujahideen have been using the den for planning suicide bombing missions in different locations in the northern region,” he said.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2005/December/subcontinent_December727.xml&section=subcontinent&col=

[Petronas]

Fitzgerald: Bangladesh, Bangladesh
December 20, 2005

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald provides some background on the expanding jihad in Bangladesh:

In 1971 East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) rose in revolt against West Pakistan (now Pakistan). Under General Yahya the Bengalees were ruthlessly suppressed. At their side, working hand in bloody glove with the General’s men, were the so-called "razakars." These were local fanatical Muslims intent on keeping "Pakistan" together in the interests, not of the people of Bangladesh, but for the "idea of Islam" and an "Islamic Pakistan." All through the war for Bangladesh's independence from West Pakistan the Muslim razakars committed mass murder of those Bangladeshis fighting the forces of General Khan. This collaborationist element in East Pakistan murdered not only local Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians, but also Muslims who wanted independence. More on this can be found at such websites as www.faithfreedom.org and websites of Hindus and ex-Muslims that concentrate on Bangladesh.

The more fervent someone was a Muslim, the more likely it was that one would become a mass-murderer of one's neighbors. So many were convinced that as an Islamic State Pakistan had to be supported, no matter what that meant. It had to be supported for the Glory of Islam, the All for Islam, Islam, Islam. Millions managed to save themselves only because India offered them refuge.

These "razakars" were never punished. Some of them are in the Bangladeshi government today. The members and supporters of the opposing Awami League, per contra, are constantly under siege. Some of them have been murdered -- and those murdered include some of most distinguished Bengalis, including, this past January 27, Shah A. M. S. Kibria, killed by grenade thrown at him. The country is spiraling into complete Muslim fanaticism. One can see, at certain websites, pictures of a Hindu who, having made the mistake of walking near a mosque in Bangladesh recently as Friday Prayers were ending, was beaten by a Muslim mob -- a mob enthused, no doubt, by whatever stirring khutba it had just heard. It is not only those taking part so gleefully in the man's murder that strikes one -- but all the others standing about, enjoying the spectacle or casually ignoring it as if this sort of thing happens every day.

In 1947 38% of the population of what was then East Pakistan was non-Muslim. It is now down to 8%. Massacres of Hindus, of the few Buddhists who remained in post-Islamic India (in the Chittagong Hills area), and of Christians and other non-Muslims have been incessant. In recent times the pace of such persecution and murder seems to have picked up.

There are those Bangladeshis who nonetheless attempt to lessen the effect of Islamic fanaticism, which has recently come to infect more and more Muslims in east Asia, including not only Bangladesh, but also Malaysia and Indonesia, and Muslim minorities in southern Thailand and the southern Philippines. Things are getting worse -- that is, the ideology that Islam encourages, the Jihad-conquest, and the war against all Infidels, is not dying down but increasing. And so is the war against those who, through no fault of their own, were born into Islam and, not knowing much about it, continue to call themselves "Muslims" -- and yet, are, and will always be, the victims of other Muslims whose behavior is not an aberration but is, rather, based on the texts of Islam, of Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira.

Finally, there is the case of Mr. Salah Uddin Shoaib Chaudhury, the editor of Blitz, who was arrested in November 2003 and held without trial until May 2005 for the crime of trying to establish better relations between Israel and Muslim countries. Chaudhury's case should have been the subject of intervention by the American government. That it was not is a scandal. As for the murder of Kibria and of many others, that too should be protested – for Islam, which is essentially a vehicle for Arab cultural imperialism, continues to further the destruction of non-Muslim minorities in Bangladesh, and of Bangladesh itself, in a razakar-orgy of violence.

And today? Today in Bangladesh Hindus are beaten to death, Christians murdered, and the few remaining Buddhists in the Chittagong Hills fear for their lives. And the Awami League holdovers, the people with civic courage, like Kibria, whose Islam is tempered by their innate humanity and good sense, are murdered by those whose Islam is not.

And that is Bangladesh.

It will be interesting to see if Irene Khan, herself of Muslim Bangladeshi descent and the Secretary-General of that now heavily politicized organization, Amnesty International, (which is normally so exercised about the “war crimes” of the United States and, bien sur, Israel), will forthrightly take the lead in denouncing, again and again, the massacres of Christians and especially of Hindus in Bangladesh. She was recently there, and what seemed to exercise her the most was the declaration that Ahmadiyyas were not legitimate Muslims.

One would like Irene Khan to discuss what it was about the redefinition of the status of Ahmadiyyas was so worrying. Why would it matter, if they are called "Muslims" or not, if Islam itself is the religion of peace and tolerance we hear that it is? Why would being declared "not-Muslim" affect the wellbeing, in Bangladesh, of Ahmaddiyyas? Irene Khan knows the answer. But she persists in refusing to join Ali Sina, Ibn Warraq, and others. Instead she pretends that the problem is not Islam, not the words of Qur'an and hadith -- no, no, that will never do -- but the "cultural" or "civilizational" attitudes that, for some reason, are remarkably coincident in time and space with Islam.

Meanwhile, let's keep a bead on Bangladesh. Make no mistake: it is an unpleasant place, made unpleasant by the aggressions of Islam. No Tales of a Bengal Lancer, and no verses by the once-celebrated Rabindranath Tagore (not a Muslim, so disliked very much in Bangladesh), are part of present-day Bangladesh, or to make it more pleasingly exotic, Bangla Desh. The massacres of millions of insufficiently loyal, or insufficiently Muslim, Bangladeshis by the army of West Pakistan seems to have left little impression. One might, under the circumstances, have thought that that little display of murderous aggression, with the stated aim of restoring the right rule of Allah to a wavering Bengali population, might have had long-term effects of fervor. Nope, does not seem to have happened -- always excepting the handful of skeptical freedom-lovers who, through the Internet, are learning the disastrous effects Islam has had on the intellect, and on human potential, everywhere it has imposed its will.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/009476.php

[Petronas]

Bangladesh (Country threat level - 4): A homemade bomb -- consisting of a tin pot filled with nail splinters and explosives -- detonated after being thrown into a crowd waiting at a gate to the Dhaka Trade Fair on 25 December 2005. At least four people were injured in the incident. Although an investigation continues, police officials suspect that muggers fleeing the area had thrown the device to create a panic. No further information is available.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 12/27/2005

[Petronas]

A disquieting revelation
Thu. December 29, 2005

The facts could not be any clearer. Elements within the government have for a long time been sponsoring and sheltering the outlawed JMB and JMJB militants. This original revelation was reported in the media long ago and has since been corroborated time and again through confessional statements made during the interrogations of suspected militants. The evidence suggesting such links is now so great and disquieting that it can no longer be plausibly denied, and the revelations of recently arrested JMB leader Lutfar Rahman are merely the latest in what now amounts to a mountain of substantiation

What is becoming clear is that, when it comes to the militants, the government has been pursuing a policy that can at best be described as extremely short-sighted, and at worst, utterly reckless and indefensible. The evidence is incontrovertible that in response to banditry of so-called leftist groups in the north-west of Bangladesh, certain elements within the government took a decision to sponsor the rise of the militant religious groups to take up arms against those outlaws. This is how the religious militancy arose and how it was able to spread far and wide with relatively little check from the authorities.

Now that government's ill-fated policy of sponsoring vigilante justice has backfired disastrously and been exposed for all to see, the time has come for the government to first acknowledge its grievous error and then to correct it. The first thing that the government needs to do is to follow up on the information that has been provided implicating members of the administration. If there is credible evidence suggesting someone in the government has a connection to the militants, he or she needs to be brought to justice, not shielded.

The government needs to publicly disassociate itself from those within its ranks who are soft on the militants. It should make clear that there is no place for such people in the administration. This will send the message to the militants that their virtual impunity is a thing of the past. The government must renounce and abandon the policy of tolerating the sponsorship and shelter of the militants, and take full action against those within its ranks who do so.

http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/12/29/d51229020125.htm

[Petronas]

BANGLADESH: SECURITY FORCES CAPTURE TOP ISLAMIC MILITANT LEADER
Mar-03-2006 05:47 pm

Sylhet, 2 March (AKI) - Bangladesh security forces arrested on Thursday the country's most wanted Islamic militant leader accused of masterminding a series of bomb attacks last year, reports said. Shayek Abdur Rahman surrendered after a siege of over 24 hours in the northeastern city of Syleth. Rahman led the banned Jamaat ul-Mujahideen group which has been accused of organising a violent campaign to introduce Sharia law in Bangladesh, a secular state with a mainly Muslim population. Another Islamic group, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh is also accused of taking part in the campaign.

Security forces had surrounded a two-storey building in Sylhet where Rahman was hiding since Tuesday night, fired tear gas shells and pumped in water to force the militant out. "Shayek Abdur Rahman along with two of his associates have come out of hiding and surrendered," said lieutenant-colonel Nurul Momen of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). Rahman's wife Ayesha, their two sons and two daughters surrendered on Wednesday with another four people and were arrested.

A home-made bomb, explosives, a detonator and some Islamic publications were reportedly recovered from the building after Rahmangave himself up. The bombings in Bangladesh have killed at least 30 people, including two judges, and wounded 150 since August last year.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.271025941&par=0

[Petronas]

'Top Bangladeshi militant' held
Monday, 6 March 2006, 10:09 GMT

Security officials in Bangladesh say they have arrested a top Islamic militant leader after a gun battle in a northern district. Siddiqul Islam, alias Bangla Bhai, of the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) was captured at his hideout in Mymensingh district, the police said. Last week, JMB leader Abdur Rahman surrendered to police in north-eastern Sylhet district. Officials blame the group for a wave of bombings that have left many dead.

Security forces surrounded Islam's hideout in Muktagacha - near Mymensingh town about 110 km (70 miles) north of the national capital, Dhaka - on Sunday at midnight, Mashuk Hasan, an official of Bangladesh's top anti-crime outfit Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) told reporters. The militants inside the house retaliated by throwing bombs and firing at the security forces and triggered a shootout, he said.

The militants even detonated a bomb inside the house which damaged the roof and injured seven people including RAB agents and Islam, he said. "During the raid Bangla Bhai detonated an explosive and he was slightly injured, " Mr Hasan told reporters.

Islam, who lost a lot of blood and suffered burn and splinter injuries, was taken to a hospital in Mymensingh and underwent an operation, Dr Abdul Ahad, who treated Islam told the Associated Press news agency. He was then flown to a paramilitary hospital in Dhaka, but his injuries are not life threatening, an RAB spokesman said.

The BBC's Roland Buerk says Bangla Bhai came into prominence in 2004 when his group, Jagrata Muslim Janata (Vigilant Muslim Citizens), launched a reign of terror in the north of the country. He and the local authorities allegedly fought the Maoist rebels and imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law - forcing women to wear burqas and men to grow beards.

Recently the government said Islam was the second most important leader in the JMB. In February, a Bangladeshi court sentenced Islam, Rahman and two others accused of Islamic militancy to 40 years in prison in absentia for a bomb attack that killed two judges last year.

Last August, some 500 bombs were set off in all but one of Bangladesh's 64 districts in the space of an hour. Three people were killed and about 100 injured. A number of subsequent bomb attacks have targeted judges and court rooms.

More than 100 cases have been filed against alleged members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen in connection with the bombing campaign. The militant group has been demanding the introduction of Sharia law in the country.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4777526.stm

[Petronas]

Bangladesh (Country threat level - 4): On 15 March 2006, the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka issued the following Warden Message: "American citizens should be aware that the Peace Corps has decided to suspend indefinitely its program in Bangladesh due to the possibility that terrorist elements might attempt to attack Peace Corps Volunteers in Bangladesh, perhaps in retaliation for the recent capture of five of the top seven leaders of Jamaatul Mujahidin. The Embassy has received several credible but unsubstantiated threat reports involving the Peace Corps in Bangladesh. However, the decision to suspend the program followed a careful assessment of Bangladesh's broader security environment and was not based on any single threat or incident. ..."

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

[keith]

Islamists Set Sights on Bangladesh
Sun, 2006-06-04 03:43
By Dr. Richard L. Benkin

News coming out of Bangladesh should not hearten those people looking to frustrate Islamist designs in South Asia. In the wake of last month’s violence, Bangladeshi remain tied to their paroxysms of denial, ignoring significant moves by Islamists who are pursuing their goals with a monomaniacal dedication. During two days of rioting, beginning with textile workers, caused well over 100 casualties and perhaps a dozen fatalities.

Several factories were destroyed; many more temporarily put out of action. When police were unable to quell the disturbances, the government called out the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles who did the trick. Foreigners relying on the Dhaka media for good information, however, found wildly varying reports, each written from the particular paper’s bias.

One, for instance, immediately took the workers’ side, stating flatly that their revolt was in response to factory owner oppression. On the other side, one daily headlined the property damage suffered by owners and only mentioned the casualties in passing. Newspapers loyal to the political opposition suggested that government inaction or design was the real culprit.

Pro-government writers cited the leftist opposition’s influence with labor. Then as the government gained control of the situation, a plethora of conspiracy theories came to dominate public discussion about the matter; and that was far more interesting not only for what they said but also for what they omitted.

Suspicions immediately fell on forces outside of the country, and fingers pointed at China and India, allegedly after a share of the international textile market at Bangladesh’s expense. Destruction, work stoppages, and concerns by foreign buyers about Bangladeshi reliability would force them to seek other sources. No less prominent a figure than Home Minister Lutfuzzaman Babar promoted that belief when he said, "It is a conspiracy by our competitors to destroy the garment sector in our country...We will protect our country as well as our industry at any cost." Other ministers echoed those sentiments.

That explanation, however, fails to hold up even after a little thought. To begin with, it could not have been lost on most people that foreign interests were the first to be targeted during the violence. India and China like all modern nation-states have a vested interest in maintaining the international system of commerce, diplomacy, and dispute resolution. As such, they do not benefit from an unstable Bangladesh. Both countries have become extremely successful players in that system and would suffer more than they would gain from upsetting it—which is exactly what an anarchic Bangladesh would do. It is not unlike the US-USSR conflict during the Cold War. As the decades passed, it became clear that while both sides had the ability to destroy the other, they each had too much at stake to risk losing what they had. Thus, there was a continuous inertia, punctuated only at times by action; and they never pulled the nuclear trigger. Today, however, there is another force whose hallmark has been upsetting that international system and threatening to use those weapons.

There were also the expected partisan political explanations. Some members of the opposition Awami League (AL) advanced what Americans call a “wag the dog” explanation that the government provoked the violence to distract people from problems they seem unable to resolve. The reference is to a tail wagging a dog instead of the other way around, and that things are not really as they seem. Elements loyal to the ruling Bangladesh National Party (BNP) pointed to AL silence in the face of the unrest and its failure to condemn the rioting workers.

But the political conspiracy theories also fail to convince. It is hardly in the interests of any elected government to preside over a nation plagued by violence. Any lingering doubts about that should have been put to rest when Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia returned home and did not take the opportunity to declare a state of emergency—another motive suggested by the opposition. And thus far, nothing more than speculation has been advanced to support an AL conspiracy. But the violence does cast enough doubt on both parties to benefit another force.

While the various theories fall apart in whom they identify as the culprits, they do yield important insight in refusing to accept the riots as a spontaneous uprising or an event that occurred without planning. Whether they point to India, China, the AL or BNP, Bangladeshis seem to agree with one official who, as reported in Weekly Blitz said, “A vested quarter at home and abroad planned the ransacking of garment industries to create an anarchic situation.” No one seems ready to say exactly which “vested quarter” with bases both in Bangladesh and abroad that might be; although all logic points to only one group: radical Islamists.

Friends of democracy should find the prognosis chilling. The Islamists have a significant advantage because they have a multi-national perspective. Most Bangladeshis, on the other hand, still to see the matter through protectionist lenses and continue their traditional India bashing. Their Al Qaeda cohorts have moved easily from their former strongholds in Afghanistan and Pakistan, across Kashmir and the mountainous India-China frontier in to Nepal; where Indian intelligence reports that they have been operating at least since late 2005. What makes that particular interesting is the fact that Nepal is 89 percent Hindu, with most of the rest of its people Buddhist. That hardly makes Nepal a candidate to be the next Islamist state. But Nepal brings Al Qaeda closer to their non-fictional Shagri La, the world’s third largest Muslim nation, Bangladesh.

Islamists have a track record of de-stabilizing places like Bangladesh. In Iran, extensive social unrest preceded the Islamist victory. Islamist elements destroyed the centuries-old power sharing arrangements that made Lebanon a model of a stable and successful bi-religious state and gave Beirut the moniker, “Paris of the Middle East.” There might be little international agreement how to solve the Middle East conflict, but there is near unanimity that the chaos in Gaza enabled Islamist Hamas to build its power base there. The Muslim Brotherhood has been behind de-stabilizing efforts in Egypt, Jordan, and elsewhere. And today Islamist Iran proudly exports terror, as does its Lebanese lapdog, Hizbullah. With bases moving ever closer to the Bangladeshi cauldron, Al Qaeda can add its mix of violence and religious intolerance to that stew.

There is a political component as well. Both major parties suffer from the recent unrest.
The AL remains identified with labor unions and leftist coalitions that participated in the rioting. Its silence during the violence further marks it as unwilling or unable to take a strong stand on behalf of Bangladeshi order. The violence hurts the BNP since it seems to reflect the ruling party’s inability to maintain the social order. But a third political force does gain when the two major parties are weakened.

Moreover, when social unrest prevails, a party promising a “new order” and claiming to be an untainted alternative can catch the attention of voters who might fail to focus on that party’s darker intentions. Weimar Germany’s collapse paved the way for Hitler and the Nazis, but one need not go back that far. The same thing happened earlier this year in the Palestinian Authority elections. Voters chose to ignore Hamas’s anti-peace platform, choosing instead to grasp at what they hoped was a lifeline to save them from a corrupt and chaotic regime. Now that Islamist platform has impoverished those voters.

Bangladeshi Islamists—and neither of the major parties—satisfy those who point to domestic and foreign elements conspiring together. They are also the only political force in Bangladesh with a history of initiating violence among the people in support of their political goals. They proclaimed last year’s terror bombings to be undertaken to implement Sharia as the law of the land. If social unrest and violence erupts periodically from now until the January elections—the bombings of 2005, the recent labor violence, and one or two more episodes before the voting—they might achieve that goal with a showing strong enough for them to demand the Law Ministry and rule that no law can be implemented unless it conforms to Sharia. Bangladeshi politicians continue alienating legitimate voters with their squabbling and point scoring over the upcoming elections. While they are, Islamists can stuff the ballot box in favor of their own candidates by sending their minions across the remote four-country frontier where Nepal and Bangladesh almost touch. It was a tactic that worked in Iraq and the Palestinian Authority; and one they are trying out in places like Azerbaijan to thwart the traditionally tolerant Islam there.

The Islamists who murdered Bangladeshi jurists and others throughout Bangladesh last fall promised that the violence would continue if it suited their objectives. History has shown that it is best to take them at their word. In country after country and now in Bangladesh, they have not scrupled about sacrificing innocent victims to advance their nefarious platform. Bangladeshis would do well to unite with their neighbors instead of pointing fingers at them, which plays right into Islamist hands. For only a multi-national approach, involving all the nations in the region, perhaps the United States as well, will defeat their quest for international domination.

- Asian Tribune -

http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/425

[Petronas]

Bangladeshi Muslim editor faces sedition charge, death penalty for pro-Israel views
September 22, 2006

A Bangladeshi Muslim journalist arrested in the past for advocating ties with Israel now faces charges of sedition, a crime punishable by death in Bangladesh, and will likely be put on trial by the end of the month, The Jerusalem Post has learned. In a court session on Tuesday in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, a state-appointed judge ruled that the government's case against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury could proceed to trial and that the hearings would commence within 15 days.

As editor of The Weekly Blitz, an English-language newspaper published in Dhaka, Choudhury aroused the ire of Bangladeshi authorities after he printed articles favorable to Israel and critical of Muslim extremism. Bangladesh does not recognize Israel's existence and refuses to establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. In November 2003, Choudhury was arrested at Dhaka's international airport just prior to boarding a flight on his way to Israel, where he was scheduled to deliver an address on promoting understanding between Muslims and Jews. His visit to Israel would have been the first by a Bangladeshi journalist.

Choudhury was charged with sedition, held in prison for 17 months and was reportedly tortured before being freed in April 2005. But the authorities in Bangladesh, which is ruled by a coalition government that includes Islamic extremists, decided to continue pursuing charges against him.

Dr. Richard Benkin, an American Jew who led the fight to win Choudhury's release, told the Post that the situation facing the beleaguered journalist was dire. "Choudhury has angered the Islamists, who both engineered his arrest and continue to see this as an important case," Benkin said. "He is a pro-Israeli, anti-terrorist Muslim who will not be cowed into silence."

After his release from prison last year, Choudhury proceeded to reopen his weekly newspaper, continuing to publish articles calling for greater interfaith understanding and warning of the dangers posed by fundamentalist Islamic terror. Last month, unknown assailants set off explosives outside the newspaper's offices and planted a bomb in the press room that failed to detonate.

According to Benkin, Choudhury's family has been subjected to various forms of what appear to be orchestrated harassment. These have included pressure from the Bangladeshi authorities to denounce Choudhury, angry crowds gathering outside their home and even physical attacks. The intimidation has stopped "for the moment," he said. In a May 20, 2005 opinion piece published in the Post, Choudhury wrote: "As a journalist, I counteracted the biased 'news' that promoted hatred of Israel and Jews, condemned terrorism, promoted the free exchange of ideas and urged Bangladesh to recognize Israel." Describing the moments immediately before his 2003 arrest, he wrote: "Though physically still in Dhaka, my heart ached to kiss Israel's holy soil."

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013242.php

[keith]

At the crossroads of secular tolerance and militant Islam

Bangladesh's eclectic culture is threatened by the conflict that has now erupted into violence on the streets

Jeremy Seabrook
Tuesday November 7, 2006
The Guardian

A country torn by a low-intensity cultural civil war has seen at least 25 people die in this conflict in the last 10 days; its capital city is strewn with overturned cycle rickshaws, rocks and broken glass. A tense and watchful calm has since returned to Dhaka, one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, although sporadic violence continues in some outlying districts.

This is Bangladesh, the country of origin of about 300,000 British people, with the fourth-largest Muslim population in the world. The disturbances at the end of October followed the end of the five-year mandate of the Bangladesh National party and its religious-party allies, Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote. These allies never believed in the existence of Bangladesh; they fought on Pakistan's side in the 1971 liberation war, in which at least a million Bengalis died.

The cause of the riots was the appointment of the leader of a caretaker government for the three months before elections next January. The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, subsequently assumed leadership of the interim administration. The opposition Awami League has given him until November 10 to "demonstrate his neutrality"; if he fails it will intensify popular demonstrations by the 14-party combine it leads.

Bangladesh has a period of quarantine between administrations. This reflects the conflict between the Muslim and Bengali identities of Bangladesh, a struggle all the more poignant since it takes place within individual Bangladeshis. The two principal parties are governed not by the mild ideological disagreements that characterise parties in most democracies but by visceral personal hatred, embodied in the two protagonists: Khaleda Zia, widow of the murdered military leader Ziaur Rahman, and Sheikh Hasina, daughter of the assassinated first leader of Bangladesh, who led the country during and immediately after the war of liberation in 1971.

The source of the quarrel lies not in the slaying of the dead heroes, whose memory the two rivals cherish, but in a dispute over who was truly responsible for the freedom of the then East Pakistan from semicolonial dependency upon Pakistan. For the Awami League it was a popular uprising - supported by India - by the defenders of a secular Bengali culture; the Bangladesh National party, born of the cantonment, sees the army as the true agent of Bangladesh's freedom. Hatred originates in the contentious ownership of a story of liberation.

Disputed proprietorship of the story of the birth of Bangladesh has little to do with western ideas of democracy. Bangladesh is a feudal democracy, where the winner of elections takes absolute control and denies the legitimacy of opposition. Oppositions usually refuse to sit in parliament and take their quarrel on to the streets in a series of hartals (political strikes originating in the days of the British raj) that bring the cities to a standstill.

The outgoing administration won dramatically over the Awami League in 2001 but presided over continuing corruption, nepotism and political violence; there have been more than 700 extrajudicial killings in "crossfire" by the Rapid Action Battalion security forces, the elimination of journalists and opposition politicians. After the election of 2001, widespread "religious cleansing" of Hindus and attacks on Christians took place. The funds of some secular non-government organisations were blocked, and their leaders were arrested and imprisoned.

An upsurge in political violence by Islamist extremists was denied by the government. A campaign of bombings against opposition politicians, Sufi shrines, cinemas, theatres performing traditional jatra plays and the Ahmadi minority was blamed on opposition tactics to "tarnish the image" of Bangladesh. Groups such as the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh and the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh operated with impunity under the patronage of minority religious parties in government.

With the government under pressure from western powers, leaders of these terrorist groups were arrested and tried after two judges were killed in a suicide bomb attack in August 2005. Six, found guilty in May 2006, are due to be executed. Amnesty International has protested at the haste with which this is being carried out, since it suspects that the government wants to silence those it indulged until the recent past. These groups represent a minority in Bangladesh, but they are resolved to regain for an austere, fundamentalist Islam today what Pakistan lost in 1971.

The confidence of the Awami League on the streets of Dhaka and Chittagong comes not only from the growing gap between rich and poor, rise in prices of basic commodities, frequent power cuts and expanding city slums; the party also was boosted by a split in the Bangladesh National party last week, when 13 of its MPs left the party to form a new dissident group, criticising the leadership's corruption and indifference to the poor.

Bangladesh has occupied a particular place for the US in its war on terror, as it has been upheld as an example of "moderate Muslim democracy", along with Turkey and Malaysia. In the early years of Khaleda's government the US did not acknowledge violence in a country that supported it against Islamist extremism.

Extremists represent a small percentage of the people. Islam in Bangladesh was always tolerant, inflected by Sufism and coexistence with Hinduism; Bengali culture, with its dance, poetry, drama and music, inspires great popular pride. The coming elections will determine whether the country remains democratic and tolerant, with its eclectic Bengali culture, or whether a more militaristic, nationalist administration will drive it further into the arms of militant Islam.

· Jeremy Seabrook is the author of Freedom Unfinished: Fundamentalism and Popular Resistance in Bangladesh

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1941103,00.html

[Petronas]

Lashker, Jaish expand terror network to B’desh, Nepal
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 01, 2006 01:19:11 AM

Pakistan-backed terrorist groups Lashker e Taiba and Jaish e Mohammed are using territory and elements in Bangladesh and Nepal for movement of terrorists and finances, according to a status paper on internal security presented in Parliament.

According to the paper put together by the Union home ministry, LeT and Bangladesh-based Harkat ul Jehad al Islami (Hujai-BD), linked to LeT and JeM, are recruiting Indian youth for training in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and then sending them back for subversive activities.
Investigations into the recent terror attacks in the country point to the the increased use of Bangladeshi territory by ISI-backed terrorist groups and the growing terror networking of Bangladeshi fundamentalist groups with LeT and JeM.

Among the recent terror attacks in the country are the 7/11 blasts in Mumbai, the serial blasts in Varanasi in March this year and the attack on Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore last December. In all these attacks, the suspected terrorists had infiltrated from across the India-Bangladesh border.

According to the status paper, the current strategy of terrorist groups included maintenance of continuous flow of finances to sustain their network; targeting of vital installations and economic infrastructure; recruitment and training of local modules; attacking soft targets like market places, public transport, places of worship and congregations; provoking communal tension to drive a wedge between communities; and supplying hardware through land and sea routes.

Aware that terrorists are now eyeing the hinterland, the Centre, according to the status paper, has been regularly sensitising the states about the security threats besides asking them to set up dedicated special police units to deal with terror acts.

The focus of the counter-terror strategy is also on busting terrorist modules, with the help of timely and pinpointed intelligence. For this, the Centre has asked the states to strengthen their special branches and has assured them of financial and technical help for training and equipment in this regard.

The status paper, which gives an overall as well as region-specific account of violence in the current year, reveals that though violence in J&K, Naxal-affected states except Chattisgarh, and the North-east has declined until October 31 this year, all the three regions continue to be a matter of concern for the security agencies.

In J&K, where the paper concedes that infiltration has gone up during the current year, overall incidents of violence dipped to 1,442 until October 31, 2006, from 1,736 in the corresponding period last year. The number of security personnel killed was lower at 131 this year. (until October 31), compared to 168 last year; ditto for civilian killings, which fell from 490 last year to 340 this year.

In Naxal-affected states, though, overall, violence dipped marginally, Chattisgarh stood out as the worst-hit, recording a three-fold rise in civilian killings and double the number of violent incidents until October 31 this year. Casualties of security personnel were up from 45 last year to 73 this year. Interestingly, Maharashtra has also shown a marginal rise in the number of incidents this year, up from 76 last year to 79 this year.

Though the number of security forces killed has dipped, the number civilians deaths has gone up this year. In the North-east, overall violence was more or less the same as compared to last year. Incidents fell marginally to 1,130 until October 31, 2006, from 1,139 last year. Fatal casualties among security personnel were up to 68 this year from 56 last year. The number of civilians killed were less in 2006. Assam, despite a 6-week ceasefire, has seen little change.

There were 334 violent incidents until October 31 this year as compared to 343 last year. More security personnel were killed — 25 in 2006 against 5 last year. However, the brief cessation of operations by the security forces ahead of and during the ceasefire cut the killings of militants almost by half.

Manipur showed slight improvement, while Nagaland showed a climbing graph of violence. The latter, however, was more on account of factional fights between the NSCN(I-M) and NSCN(Khaplang).

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/660587.cms

[Petronas]

Link to a 6 page article:

Islamic Extremism and Terrorism in Bangladesh
http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=1556033&ct=3420321

[Petronas]

BANGLADESH: SIX ISLAMIC MILITANTS EXECUTED
Mar-30-07 11:20

Six Islamic militants leaders in Bangladesh who were convicted of murdering two judges and accused of masterminding a wave of bomb attacks in the country were hanged early on Friday, according to officials, quoted on the website of the Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star. The six included Abdur Rahman, the head of the banned Islamic group Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and his deputy Siddiqul Islam, known as Bangla Bhai. The JMB wants to establish Sharia Islamic law in Bangladesh and is one of three Islamic groups outlawed after the authorities linked them to the bomb attacks. Reports say that the men were executed in different jails across Bangladesh.

The militants were sentenced to death last year for an attack which killed two judges in November 2005. The men had said that the had carried out the attack against the judiciary because it was a secular court and not run by Sharia Islamic law.

The JMB has been blamed for a string of bombings across the country that killed at least 28 people. In August 2005, some 500 bombs were set off in all but one of Bangladesh's 64 districts in the space of an hour. This was followed bomb attacks in November which targeted judges and court rooms. Reports say following the attacks some 1,000 JMB members were arrested.

A seventh man also reportedly received the death sentence in absentia for his role in the November 2005 killings. He is currently on the run. A total of 30 people, including the seven in this case, were sentenced to death over the bombing campaign, while 10 others have received life terms of 40 years. Twenty others are said to be serving 20-year sentences.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.400365841&par=0

[Ono]

Bombs hit three Bangladesh stations


http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/images/2007/5/1/1_218774_1_5.jpg

A security cordon was drawn around the stations affected by the bomb blasts [AFP]




Several small bombs have exploded at three railway stations in Bangladesh slightly injuring one person.


The bombs detonated at stations in Dhaka, the capital, in Sylhet, the country's northern city and in Chittagong, the southeastern port, at about 7.30am local time (0130 GMT) on Tuesday.

Officials found metal plates, signed by "Zadid [new] al-Qaeda," at two of the stations.



"The bombs were kept in cotton sacks, along with the metal sheets. They exploded before anyone detected them," Abu Zafar Alam, a police inspector at Kamalapur, Bangladesh's largest railway terminal, said.

The only person injuried was a rickshaw-puller who tried to open one of the sacks, causing it to explode.



Motive unclear


The metal plates referred to an attack on the minority Ahmadiyas - a Muslim sect frequently targeted by radical groups within the majority Sunni Muslim community.


Ahmadiyas differ from mainstream Islam by not believing that Mohammad was the last prophet.


The messages also issued threats against Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Bangladesh.


"If Hazrat [Prophet] Mohammad is not declared the superman of the world by May 10, all non-governmental organisations will be blown up," the slogans on the metal sheets read in the Bengali language.


Police did not immediately confirm who were behind the blasts and no arrests have been made.


"We are investigating whether it is a new group [responsible for the bomb attacks]," said Nur Mohammed, national police chief.





Security threat


Police said security across the country had been tightened after the bomb blasts.



In August 2005, three people were killed in a series of bomb blasts in towns and cities across Bangladesh organised by Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, a banned group seeking the imposition of strict Islamic law.


Further bomb attacks by Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, another banned group, were staged through the rest of 2005, killing at least 30 people.


Six leaders from the two organisations were hanged in March after being convicted of the murder of two judges who died in the bomb attacks.


A state of emergency in Bangladesh has been in effect since January, when political violence forced the army-backed interim government to suspend a national election.





http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/95CFCAEE-A005-4278-A4EE-7D34C6A98786.htm

[Petronas]

Bombs Seized, Four Arrested in Bangladesh
Monday 15 October 2007 (04 Shawwal 1428)

Police yesterday seized seven crude bombs from two places in Barguna district and arrested four people. Five bombs were found near the house of one Golam Mostafa and two were planted near Baitun Najat Jame Mosque in the district town. Police later arrested Golam Mostafa, Bayezid Hossain Sagir, Hafez M. Zakir Hossain and Jubayer Hossain.

A bomb expert of the Rapid Action Battalion defused two bombs at Sadar police station in the afternoon. Experts said the bombs were not powerful enough to cause casualties and were only intended to create panic.

Five other bombs found near the mosque were kept in the police station for further test. Extra security measures were put in place in the capital Dhaka to avert any untoward incident during Eid. ...

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=102481&d=15&m=10&y=2007